Fire Emblem If is already shaping up to be one of the most intriguing entries in the popular series to date. Though it's not due in the West until 2016, it's raising eyebrows with its approach to two separate retail releases + DLC for its Summer release in Japan, which will be combined through various purchasing options to deliver two main story paths and a third download-only set of content.

The official website has now added to the intrigue by posting the rather handsome box art. The minor story is that it has a 'C' CERO rating, which is 15 years and older - that's one level higher than Fire Emblem: Awakening, so this one will clearly be a little more mature.

Most notable, though, is the little amiibo logo confirming that the Nintendo's toy range will be supported in the game. This makes sense considering the existing Fire Emblem-related toys that are available, while there could naturally be more figures on the way.

Quite how the amiibo line will be used in gameplay will be interesting to see - they'll work on any New Nintendo 3DS, or course, but a portal is still on the way to support original 3DS systems.

Are you excited about amiibo being used in the new Fire Emblem games? Let us know.

Would be good if it's existing amiibo as i have most of the FE characters but my bank balance has suffered as a result so wouldn't be getting any dedicated amiibo for this. I say that now but no doubt when they reveal what they look like I'll start throwing money at the screen again...

Ahhhhh this is torture........another 3DS FE and nothing for my big screen TV since Radiant Dawn......Come on Nintendo give me some difficult turn based 40 plus hours on first play through for my big screen tv goodness.

Oh well.....I'll own 3 retail games for my 3DS i guess. FE:A, S.T.E.A.M, and FE: Black

In Codename: Steam on my new 3DS XL says I can do amiibo yet in a cruel sick joke I am unable to get the item that is advertised. No Marth or Ike. EBGames already cancelled either Robin or Lucina and no one has heard anything about the Marth restock here in Canada.

The most well supported amiibo I may never get. At this point I cannot see anything Fire Emblem Amiibo as a selling point. While I have never really tried the Fire Emblem Series at this point I refuse to until they can get their amiibo stock act together.

I'd say Teen is still likely. Different countries have different standards. A game can be T here, but rated Mature overseas, but then the confusion sets in when Mature for another country is 15, not 17.

I can't see If going M in North America. It's one series that seems comfortable in it's E10 / Teen territory.

Edit: from Wikipedia's article on CERO:

"Some content may be inappropriate for children under 15. May contain moderate sexual content, more violence, and more frequent use of strong profanity."

By the looks of things, D is where we should start worrying. So yeah, I say still T in NA.

Interesting that this got higher rating than Awakening, perhaps there is more violence or suggestive visual, maybe even better one than that Tharja's shot from the back. I guess Nintendo would try to keep this T in NA, so that means some censorship is on the way.

@DarthNocturnal Thanks, I really hope you're right. I'll play it anyway, but I'm starting to introduce my son to awesome games and he's still pretty young so there's certain content I'm not yet ready to introduce him to. He and I are playing Xenoblade 3D right now and he's LOVING it.

@Gerbwmu
Unfortunately, considering low Wii U sales, the lower attach rate for non-Mario games on Wii U, and the fact that Fire Emblem still isn't that popular in the west, a Wii U FE game would be a huge financial risk for them. They've already said that they would need to sell AT LEAST 700,000 copies to justify the development costs.
I would really love another home console game, like a sequel to Radiant Dawn with even more complexity, but I can't see it happening anytime soon

@AVahne - I'd even take an HD compilation of PoR and Radiant Dawn. Think there is some room there to extend the story if they wanted to throw in some changes. Especially in between or after Radiant Dawn.

But I think FE is more likely to skip Wii U besides a few VC releases.

To put how crazy the differences are into perspective, Xenoblade Chronicles is rated M in Australia... which is a 15+ rating where you don't need a parent or legal guardian to be with you when you purchase it. In Japan, the game was rated B, and obviously T in NA, and apparently 12 in Europe via PEGI.

So it looks like theres a chance this game may be M rated in America. Ace Attorneys Duel Destinies was the first game in that franchise to get a C-15 rating and it ended up turning into an M rating over here. It'll still probably be T but it would be interesting to see Nintendo release an M rated game.

I will be really upset if on top of the already announced likely day 1 DLC, likely more of the overpriced and including pay to win DLC in Awakening, they are going to make amiibo exclusive content too. It'd be DLC gouging consumers to the extreme.

Just watch, as soon as the ESRB's random puritans I MEAN professional raters lay eyes on the sultry, scantily clad adopted sibling fawning in their direction seductively, FE If (at least the Nohr path) will get slapped with an M rating!

I saw this coming but was helpless to do anything about it all the same. Hopefully by the time If comes out Nintendo will have reprinted the FE Amiibos in some fashion so fans can take advantage of the feature.

@AlbionHeroRadiant Dawn was certainly not the most 'mature' (whatever that might mean) game in the series, but FE Awakening was certainly more light hearted. In terms of the rest of the series, the Super Famicom games were the most 'mature', that is true. To be honest, the age ratings are sometimes meaningless when it comes to story for example, and it is looking like FE 'If' will be better than FE Awakening in that respect.

This all sounds weird for Japanese gamers but I will wait to see exactly what they do for NA-ers. Don't care about amiibo but a third content dlc interests me. I don't know how big each version of "If..." is but it seems to me that if we buy one retail, then we should receive a free code to dl the other and then of course charge us for the third episode dlc. Buying two FE games on the same day at 44.99 each here in Canada is a definite no-no. No way am I spending $100 all at once just b/c I am a fan.

Seeing as Awakening received a Teen rating, I imagine this game will receive a T from the ESRB at the very least and could very well receive a M rating, especially if suggestive/sexual themes are the reason for the upped CERO rating as the ESRB always seems to judge games more harshly for those things than they do for violence. Unfortunately, because we don't have an intermediate rating between T and M (which we sorely need), this increases the likelihood of Nintendo of America censoring the game to keep it at a T (or for no good reason, honestly; they didn't need to censor Tharja's butt in the Summer Scramble DLC but they did so anyway). That's a possibility I've been worried about ever since I saw the trailer.

I had basically the same thought. It supports figures that cannot be purchased in any store anywhere. I think I saw Marth once before it turned into fanboy/reseller bait, and that was it. I have never seen the others, and I'm pretty sure they don't exist. With this in mind, it's safe to say, I will not be using Amiibos on this game. The figures have to actually exist and be purchasable for that to happen.

Hopefully they don't lock away too much content behind an Amiibo paywall, or I may just skip these, regardless of how much I enjoy the franchise. Still not a big fan of the "two versions" nonsense. I know the 3DS is struggling with growing its library, but this is not the way to pad it out.

@Gerbwmu Hate to break it to you, but Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn nearly killed the franchise because they sold /very/ poorly especially in Japan. Thracia 776, a game that came out on the SNES in /1999/ sold almost as much as both of those games. It's going to be a long while before we see a console FE again, if at all.

"I had basically the same thought. It supports figures that cannot be purchased in any store anywhere. I think I saw Marth once before it turned into fanboy/reseller bait, and that was it. I have never seen the others, and I'm pretty sure they don't exist."

It's crazy how accurate that statement is. I have never seen any of the Fire Emblem amiibos on a shelf, I don't even recall seeing Marth on the first day, but I was only in one store on day one. I got very lucky with Ike, because I actually was able to pre-order him from GameStop. He is my favorite character in Smash, so this was a priority for me. That said, I narrowly almost didn't get him, because GameStop screwed up, and gave my Ike away to someone else. I don't know what happened. I wasn't angry or anything, because the employees felt really bad about it, plus I don't get mad at people who make minimum wage (or not much better). They told me I would be first on the list if they got more of him. They kept their promise and I got one of the very last Ikes before he disappeared entirely.

I've tried to get Lucina and Robin (my wife is a huge fan of both), but it's been a horrible mess. They sell out in minutes online, and I'll never find them in the store. I'm sure you can relate, we have jobs, and commitments not involving spamming retailer sites looking for amiibos. Apparently a lot of wave 3 never even made it to store shelves, because the pre-orders even took all of the extra stock they received for the launch day. I've pretty much given up at this point. My next real hurtle is Olimar. I love the Pikmin series, and Nintendo is making me dread his release. I'm pretty sure that the closest I'll get to having an Olimar amiibo, is typing it into Google Images.

"Still not a big fan of the "two versions" nonsense. I know the 3DS is struggling with growing its library, but this is not the way to pad it out."

You may hate me for saying this, but I actually don't mind the duel release. My wife will get the easier one, and I'll get the more difficult one. I can understand the concern though, but for me personally, I kind of like the idea of giving the casual audience a game, and the hardcore fans a game.

@Quorthon I get what you mean, but remember Atlus is partially footing the bill there. Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance were developed by Intelligent Systems.

Again, when a game released right at the end of the SNES's lifespan (Super Famicom in this case) sells better than ones that were released while the consoles still had steam in them (Especially in Radiant Dawn's case), something is /very/ wrong.